Welcome to the post-Hobby Lobby world, where religious believers square off to gain the advantage of the extreme rights accorded by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (“RFRA”).

RFRA is a black box that only reveals its contents as believers invoke it and their cases unfold. Without a doubt, the most eye-opening for the country so far was the Burwell v. Hobby Lobby decision. As everyone who reads a newspaper, owns a television, or has a smartphone knows by now: the Supreme Court ruled that RFRA grants the owners of billion-dollar industries like the arts and crafts chain of stores, Hobby Lobby (and every other corporation), the right to cut back on employee health benefits based on their religious beliefs. RFRA enabled the Green family to reject mandated contraceptive coverage under Affordable Care Act for their thousands of female employees.

The Tip of the Tip of the Iceberg

Apparently, they are the tip of the iceberg of religious owners who might well step up to the RFRA plate and bat away their female employees’ health coverage. Dozens of organizations had already filed for relief from the contraception mandate even before the Court issued its ruling on June 30.

The contraception iceberg, though, is just a tip on the eventual enormous iceberg of claims never before brought under RFRA until the Court rendered this ruling unleashing RFRA.

I am curious what the pro-lifers will do with such claims. Do they defend the abortion restrictions they paid for with lobbying and, therefore, argue that RFRA should be watered down for these believers? Or do they stick with a strong RFRA theory, and watch their anti-abortion accomplishments dismantled by the majority that disagrees with them on a woman’s right to make her own reproductive choices?

What every legislator and American should understand is this: what happens when conflicting believers invoke RFRA in the same arena is that our duly enacted laws become swiss cheese. No rational system of law, in a country where the vast majority of citizens are believers, can or should encourage believers to roam around and pick and choose the laws that will apply to them. That is what RFRA does and the Supreme Court’s First Amendment doctrine never did, as I discuss in my forthcoming book, God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty.

It is a creative group. Signs included the following sayings: “Michael’s Accepts Hobby Lobby Coupons” “572 Stores, 23,000 Employees, $3.3 Billion in Revenue, 1 Religion?” “Bigotry Is Not a Hobby” “Hypocrisy Lobby Invests in Birth Control.” “Hobby Lobby Stop the Madness.” “Don’t Tread on My IUD.” And even a bride and groom holding, “Yes, We Plan.”

The anti-Hobby Lobby protests are evidence of a grassroots backlash that unites a confluence of interests: women’s civil rights, employee rights, and rights to reproductive choice. The protests so far have been organized at least in part by local chapters of the National Organization of Women; Planned Parenthood supporters; local union shops; and concerned individuals. Interestingly, the largest was the most recent in Laguna Niguel this week, at which dozens protested at the Hobby Lobby store’s entrance.

It is highly unlikely this is the end, because the more Americans that learn of the impact of the Hobby Lobby decision on potentially millions of ordinary employees, the more outrage and disgust there is. It is reminiscent of the early days of the pro-life movement, before its orchestration and political organization.

Many of us thought the battle for women’s rights and reproductive choice were over. Not so. They will be unless women, pro-choice groups, civil rights groups, unions, employee organizations, and many others speak up now.

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